Monday, September 24, 2007

Free Samples are also Larry David's Petpeeve

HBO will be airing the 6th season of Curb Your Enthusiam starting this month and, as far as I'm concerned, it's the only truly intelligent text on cable TV.

Every episode is a beautifully woven carpet of humor, self-deprecation, and yes, human sensitivity. Larry David [also the master mind behind the uber-funny Seinfeld] comments on things with such linguistic facility that any literarily inclined individual is bound to react to.

Last night episode's tackled the notion of sampling.

Free samples are as ubiquitous as blonde people in LA. The only problem is knowing when to know that enough sampling is, indeed, enough.

Anyway, how often have we had to wait in line longer or be inconvenienced in some way because of free samplers?

This is the question that Larry David raised in his last episode and I share his basic annoyance.

I reckon one way of feeling understood and 'gotten' is recognizing things that annoy others the same way they annoy you.

Granted, free samples are out there for the taking but let's all be responsible when we partake. We don't have to try all the samples at the same time, after all there is only that much the stomach can process before one gets heartburn.

Eat responsibly, partake reasonably, and keep the line flowing, folks.

I am a fan of samples. It's a good way for businesses to place products, I get that. I like the way it's done at Costco, for instance. But I do agree with David, i.e., that it needs to be rethought when it inconveniences other customers who are not interested in sampling, but rather bying and we might simply be in their way.